Chapter 18
Social Psychology
Social Psychology
“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”
Herman Melville
Social psychology
scientifically
studies how we
think about,
influence, and
relate to one
another.
Attributing Behavior to Persons or to
Situations
Attribution Theory
Heider suggested that
we have a tendency to
give causal explanations
for someone’s behavior,
often by crediting either
the situation or the
person’s disposition.
Fritz Heider
Attribution Theory
A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility
reflects an aggressive personality (dispositional
attribution) or is a reaction to a stressful or abusive
environment (situational attribution).
Dispositions are enduring
personality traits. So, if Joe
is a quiet, shy, and
introverted child, he is
likely to be like that in a
number of situations.
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal
disposition and underestimate the impact of the
situations in analyzing the behaviors of others
leads to the fundamental attribution error.
We tend to commit the fundamental attribution
error when judging others. We tend to
understand the power of the situation better
when we see our behaviors.
Effects of Attribution
How we explain someone’s behavior affects how
we react to it.
Attitude
A belief and feeling that predisposes a person to
respond in a particular way to objects, other
people, and events.
If we believe a person is mean, we may feel dislike
for the person and act in an unfriendly manner.
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
In the Korean War, Chinese
communists solicited cooperation
from US army prisoners by
asking them to carry out small
errands. By complying to small
errands they were likely to
comply to larger ones.
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency
for people who have first agreed to a small
request to comply later with a larger request.
Role Playing Affects Attitude: Zimbardo’s
Stanford Prison Experiment
• The work of Philip
Zimbardo
• Wanted to learn about
behaviors and feelings of
prisoners or guards
• Set up a phony prison in a
university building
• Recruited male college
students to participate
• Randomly assigned 24
participants to role of either
prisoner or guard
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Philip “Uncle Phil” Zimbardo
Stanford Prison
Experiment:
Methodology
• Guards instructed to make prisoners feel frustrated
and not in control
• Prisoners arrested and booked as real prisoners
• Guards bullied the prisoners, began cruel treatment
of prisoners and even developed feelings of power.
Stanford Prison Experiment:
Results
• Prisoners staged a rebellion on the
second day
• Guards stepped up their harassment
and treated rebellion “ringleaders”
differently than the “good” prisoners
• Prisoners told they couldn’t leave; many
became anxious
• Guards increased bullying tactics as
they perceived prisoners to be a real
threat
• Everyone took on the role to which they were
assigned—the experiment became very
realistic (self-fulfilling prophecy)
• Experiment ended after six days instead
of two weeks
• Prisoners had lost their identity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx8nwjFQ
Actions Can Affect Attitudes
Why do actions affect attitudes?
Leon Festinger’s explanation is that
when our attitudes and actions are
opposed, we experience tension. This
is called cognitive dissonance. To
relieve ourselves of this tension we bring
our attitudes closer to our actions.
People want to have consistent attitudes and behaviors….when
they are not consistent they experience dissonance
(an unpleasant tension).
Usually they will change their attitude
(to make themselves feel better).
Part II: Social Influence
The greatest contribution of social psychology is its
study of attitudes, beliefs, decisions, and actions and the
way they are molded by social influence.
Why do people conform?
Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting
from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid
rejection. A person may follow social norms
because there may be a severe price to pay if not
followed.
Informative Social Influence: The group may
provide valuable information or help you make tough
decisions (after all we like to be right); however,
stubborn people will never listen to others.
Conformity & Obedience
Behavior is contagious, modeled by one,
followed by another. We follow behavior of
others to conform. Other behaviors may be
an expression of compliance (obedience)
toward authority.
Conformity
Obedience
Conformity: Adjusting one’s behavior or
thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Solomon Asch’s
Conformity Experiment
• Group Pressure
and Conformity
experiment
• Subject asked to
match one of
three lines to a
“standard line”;
the answer was
obvious
http://www.betterd
aystv.net/play.php
?vid=19441
Solomon Asch
Standard
Line
Comparison
Lines
Asch: Methodology & Results
Standard
Line
Comparison
Lines
• Other group members insisted that one of the shorter lines
was actually the same height as the standard line
• Subject began to question what he had thought was the
obvious answer
• Subject is relatively likely to give the same answer as the
group, even if it’s obviously incorrect
• Less than 1% of subjects chose the wrong line when asked the
question on their own
• More than one-third of subjects chose the wrong line when asked in
a group that had chosen the same wrong line
Conditions that Strengthen
Conformity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
One is made to feel incompetent or
insecure.
The group has at least three people.
The group is unanimous.
One admires the group’s status
and
attractiveness.
One has no prior commitment or response.
The group observes one’s behavior.
One’s culture strongly encourages respect
for a social standard.
Obedience
People comply to social
pressures. How would
they respond to outright
command?
Stanley Milgram
designed a study that
investigates the effects of
authority on obedience.
Stanley Milgram
(1933-1984)
Stanley Milgram’s
Obedience Experiment
• Real subjects were
assigned the role of
teacher
• Actors assigned the role of
learner, but the actual
subjects thought the
learners were also subjects
in the experiment
• Teacher instructed to give
the learner electric shocks
if he answered a question
wrong
• Teacher didn’t know the
shocks were not real
Milgram: Methodology & Results
• Learner would groan and
eventually scream in agony
• The experimenter insisted
that the teacher continue
• Teachers were visibly
distressed about the
experiment, but 63%
continued it until the end
• When the learner said he had
a “slight heart condition” and
screamed even louder, 65% of
teachers continued until the
end
• Similar results for women
and for men
Milgram:
Further
Findings
•
•
Teachers most likely to obey
perceived authority figures, especially
those from prestigious institutions
More likely to obey instructions when
“victim” was at a distance and
depersonalized
•
More likely to
obey without role
models who defied
the authority
figure’s orders
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/34878372#35946104
Individual Resistance
A third of the individuals in Milgram’s study
resisted social coercion.
An unarmed individual single-handedly
challenged a line of tanks at Tiananmen Square.
Implications of Milgram’s
Experiments
• Obedience to authority can keep people from following
their own morals and standards
• Ordinary people can perform cruelties in the process of
obeying authority figures in their daily lives
• Incrementally increasing the level of shock made it
more acceptable for the teachers to continue but were
still torn in hearing the victim’s screams.
Group Influence
How do groups affect our behavior? Social
psychologists study various groups:
1.
2.
3.
4.
One person affecting another
Families
Teams
Committees
Social Facilitation
Refers to improved
performance on tasks in the
presence of others. Triplett
noticed cyclists’ race times
were faster when they
competed against others
than when they just raced
against the clock. Opposite
is social impairment.
You play the piano better at your recital
than you do during weekly practices.
Social Loafing
The tendency of an individual in a group to exert less
effort toward attaining a common goal than when
tested individually.
Why does it happen?
1.
We pull
harder by
ourselves!
People tend to feel
less accountable
in a group setting
2. People tend to rely
on the efforts of their
group mates more.
“Slackers” in a group project. They
tend to put forth more effort if they
know there is an individual/peer
evaluation.
Deindividuation
The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group
situations that foster arousal and anonymity. We engage
in uncharacteristic antisocial behavior. Prosocial
behavior can result as well.
Looting v. Volunteering during Hurricane Katrina
Group Polarization
Enhances a group’s
prevailing attitudes
through a
discussion. If a
group is likeminded, discussion
strengthens its
prevailing opinions
and attitudes.
Groupthink
Irving Janus came up with this principle in
which a mode of thinking that occurs when the
desire for harmony in a decision-making group
overrides the realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Bay of Pigs & Cuban Missile Crisis
Watergate Cover-up
Chernobyl Reactor Accident
Prejudice
Simply called “prejudgment,” a prejudice is an
unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude toward a group
and its members. Based on a stereotype, prejudice is
often directed towards different cultural, ethnic, or
gender groups.
Components of Prejudice
1. Beliefs (stereotypes)
2. Emotions (hostility, envy, fear)
3. Predisposition to act (to discriminate)
Stereotype:
• Overgeneralized idea
about a group of people
(representative heuristic).
Prejudice:
• Undeserved (usually
negative) attitude towards
a group of people.
Ethnocentrism is an
example of a prejudice.
Discrimination:
• An action based on a
prejudice.
Does perception change with race?
Reign of Prejudice
Prejudice works at the conscious and [more at] the
unconscious level. Therefore, prejudice is more
like a knee-jerk response than a conscious
decision. In the last few decades, overt prejudice
has decreased, yet subtle prejudices still exists.
Why does prejudice arise?
1. Social Inequalities (increases prejudice)
2. Social Divisions
3. Emotional Scapegoating
http://wimp.com/stealingbike/
In & Out Groups
In group: Those with whom one shares a common identity.
Out group: Those perceived as different from one’s in group.
In group Bias: The tendency to favor one’s own group.
When our team wins we say “we won”
& when they lose we say “they lost.”
Emotional Roots of Prejudice
Prejudice provides an outlet for anger [emotion]
by providing someone to blame. After 9/11
many people lashed out against innocent
Arab-Americans.
This is one example of Scapegoat Theory.
People love to blame somebody else (usually
based on prejudices)!
Just-World Phenomenon
The tendency of people to believe the world is
just, and people get what they deserve and deserve
what they get. Is often the reason that we
sometimes blame the victim (for instance, she
was raped because she dresses provocatively).
Hindsight Bias
After learning an outcome, the
tendency to believe that we could have
predicted it beforehand may contribute
to blaming the victim and forming a
prejudice against them.
“I knew that Asian
kid would be
valedictorian!”
Conflict
Conflict is perceived as an incompatibility of actions,
goals, or ideas.
A Social Trap is a situation in which the conflicting
parties, by each rationally
pursuing their self-interest, become
caught in mutually destructive behavior.
“The water that I am personally using is not that
much anyway.” (If everybody thought that way
we would run out more quickly!)
Psychology of Attraction
1.
Proximity: Geographic nearness is a
powerful predictor of friendship. Robert
Zajonc and others discovered that repeated
exposure to novel stimuli increases their
attraction (mere exposure effect).
2.
Physical Attractiveness: Once proximity
affords contact, the next most important
thing in attraction is physical appearance.
Many studies have shown that more
attractive people are more popular, are
treated better, earn more money and are
perceived to be happier than less attractive
people.
3.
Similarity: Similar views among individuals
causes the bond of attraction to strengthen.
Similarity breeds content and opposites
usually do not attract!
Romantic Love
Passionate Love: An aroused state of intense positive
absorption in another, usually present at the
beginning of a love relationship.
Companionate Love: A deep, affectionate attachment
we feel for those with whom our lives are
intertwined.
1. Equity – both partners
share equally in the
relationship
2. Self-disclosure – honest
sharing of details about
ourselves.
Prosocial Behaviors
Altruism is an unselfish regard for the welfare
of others.
• March 13, 1964 – Kitty
Genovese was brutally attacked
outside her apartment in
Queens, NYC. She was stabbed
and raped.
• In spite of her repeated
screams for help, why didn’t
Kitty Genovese’s neighbors call
the police earlier or help her in
some other way before it was
too late?
John Darley and Bibb Latané’s
Bystander Intervention Experiment
•The Genovese case as well as
other similar cases caused Darley
and Latane to study why people
didn’t help out.
In their experiment they
hypothesized that people would
be less likely to report smoke in a
room if others were present
•Placed subjects in rooms that
filled with smoke
•75% of subjects reported smoke
if they were alone
Darley and Latané: Results
In order for bystanders to help:
•
People have to notice the incident
•
People have to interpret the incident as urgent
•
People have to take responsibility for helping out
Darley and Latané:
Further Studies
• There are certain circumstances under which
people are more likely to help someone in need
when:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
they’re not in a hurry
they have observed someone else being helpful
they feel guilty
they’re in a good mood
they’re focused on others and not preoccupied
they’re outside of an urban area
the victim appears to be truly deserving of help
the victim is similar in appearance or other
characteristics to the bystanders
But…
People are less likely to
help if others are
around.
This is called the
Bystander Effect
(diffusion of
responsibility)
The Norms for Helping
Social Exchange Theory: Our social behavior is an
exchange process. The aim is to maximize benefits and
minimize costs. You’ll help if the rewards for doing so
outweigh the costs of helping.
 Reciprocity Norm: The expectation that we should
return help and not harm those who have helped
us.
 Social–Responsibility Norm: Largely learned, it is
a norm that tells us to help others when they need us
even though they may not repay us. This is how
frequent volunteers often feel.
Muzafer Sherif’s
“Robber’s Cave” Experiment
• 22 Boy Scouts divided into two equal groups
• Stage 1: each group lived separately,
developed their own rules and leadership
• At end of stage 1, began to become aware of the other group
• In stage 2, intense rivalry developed between the two groups
• Researchers kept the scores close & had them compete for prizes
“Robber’s Cave” Experiment
• Researchers tried to build peace between the two groups
• Best way: developing Superordinate Goals (shared goals
that override differences among people and require their
cooperation).
• Peace building worked well; boys ended up getting along